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1 1 (May 24, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/govepdu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: College Athletes Unionize: Trustees of Dartmouth College and Other Legal Issues May 24, 2024 On March 5, 2024, the Dartmouth men's basketball team voted to become the first U.S. collegiate athletes to unionize. A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or the Board) previously determined that the players are employees of Dartmouth College (Trustees ofDartmouth College) within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act) and therefore should be afforded statutory protections to unionize and collectively bargain with their employer. Dartmouth filed a request for review of the regional director's decision with the NLRB, asking the Board to reverse the decision. This Sidebar provides background on the NLRA and the NLRB's recent actions regarding college athletes, discusses the NLRB regional director's decision in Trustees ofDartmouth College, and discusses considerations for Congress. National Labor Relations Act The Supreme Court has held that Congress's primary objective in enacting the NLRA was to achieve stability of labor relations. To that end, the NLRA provides protection to employees to self-organize; to collectively bargain; and to form, join, or assist labor organizations. The NLRA further recognizes the right of most private sector employees to engage in collective bargaining about wages, hours, and other conditions of employment through representatives of their own choosing. The right to engage in collective bargaining under the NLRA is extended only to individuals considered employees under Section 2(3) of the NLRA. Section 2(3) provides in relevant part that the term employee shall include any employee, subject to certain exceptions. In determining whether a category of workers are statutory employees covered by the NLRA, the Board has stated that its starting point is the broad language of Section 2(3). The Supreme Court has described the Act's definition of employee as striking in its breadth. The Court has further held that a broad, literal interpretation of the term is consistent with the NLRA's purposes of protecting the right of employees to organize for mutual aid without employer interference and encouraging and protecting the collective-bargaining process. The Board also considers the common law definition of employee, which generally requires that an employee is a person who performs services for another subject to their control and in return for payment. However, even in circumstances where the NLRB has the statutory Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB11168 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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